Macedonia Holocaust museum damaged during demonstrations

(JTA) — The Holocaust museum in Macedonia was damaged in a surge of violence that erupted in the country’s capital.

Protesters over the weekend damaged the Holocaust Memorial Center for the Jews of Macedonia in Skopje and the glass area of the Macedonian Museum of History, and broke several windows of a new theater under construction, according to Sitel.com.mk, a news website.

The hostilities broke out March 2 when police used tear gas to break up a demonstration by ethnic Albanian youths in support of newly named Defense Minister Talmut Xhaferi, a former leader of Albanian guerrillas who fought government forces in 2001, China’s Global Times reported.

The demonstrators also damaged bus stops and traffic signs, and overturned vehicles.

The violence came about a week before the second anniversary of the museum’s opening.

More than 100,000 Jews were living in Macedonia before the start of World War II. By 1943, a majority of them either had been arrested or killed by the Nazis. Some 200 Jews live there today, mostly in Skopje.